Sint-Janshospitaal (Bruges)

Sint-Janshospitaal: Middle hospital ward, Cornelius chapel and Romanesque tower on Mariastraat

The Sint-Janshospitaal (German: Johannishospital ) in Bruges is one of the oldest and most important works of brick Gothic in Belgium . Bruges, the capital of the province of West Flanders , is the stronghold of brick Gothic in Belgium and not least because of that it is a World Heritage Site .

history

right: courtyard side of the northern sickroom; half left: Romanesque tower

The first hospital building was erected in the middle of the 12th century ( limestone from Tournai ) on a low-lying meadow, close to the city center at the Oude Burg, but outside the ramparts at that time, conveniently located on the Reie (then sea port) and on the trade route from Ghent to the north. The establishment was carried out on behalf of the city. In the beginning it was mainly a hostel ( gasthuis - inn ) for pilgrims and the poor, but nursing came to the fore as early as the 13th century. There were three different doctors. Care was initially incumbent on a brotherhood of lay brothers and lay sisters. The middle and first of the three hospital rooms that have survived today were largely built of brick , but the street facade was faced with natural stone. Its oak ceiling construction is dendrochronologically dated to 1226–1241. In the second half of the 13th century a monastery was built to the north of the hospital, and in 1310 a brewery. To the south-west of the three interconnected hospital rooms there was a convent of Franciscan nuns , who had provided most of the nursing care since 1391. A single-nave Gothic chapel with a transept was built on the cemetery, which was expanded in 1336. Also in the first half of the 15th century, the eastern part of the northern hospital room was expanded into the Cornelius Chapel, the three-sided choir closure protruding from the street facade. In the 17th century the monastery was abandoned by his order and a pharmacy that is still preserved today was set up in its rooms . The Franciscan Sisters were replaced by Augustinian Sisters in nursing .

In the 19th century, the medieval hospital wards no longer met the requirements of patient care. Parts of the nunnery were demolished and a contemporary hospital complex was built on this site and the site of the medieval hospital cemetery, which began operations in 1864. The old buildings were partly used as storage rooms, but partly for medical facilities until the 20th century.

A modern clinic was built outside the old town in 1966 and the medical operations were relocated there in 1977. The restored hospital buildings from the Middle Ages and the 19th century are now used by the Memling Museum with its extensive collection of paintings and for offices for monument management.

description

Southern hospital room (right) and Building of the nunnery on the Reie

The hospital's medieval buildings stretch along Mariastraat to the east and the Reie river to the south.

The three hospital wards built next to each other stand across the street, the choir of the Cornelius Chapel and the east gable of two hospital wards form a large part of the street front, which is continued to the north by the Romanesque tower and the monastery. The long side of the southern hospital ward extends along the Reie, followed by two buildings of the nunnery at a slightly oblique angle. The east gable of the central hospital room is still strongly Romanesque and shows more stone than brick. All other facades are mainly made of brick, but mostly have edges and decorations made of stone. Some are changed in a neo-Gothic style. The impressive ceiling and roof structure (Flemish together as a cape - cap called) is one of the oldest surviving wooden structures of Belgium.

Web links, sources

51.2040023 3.2239898Coordinates: 51 ° 12 '14.41 " N , 3 ° 13' 26.36" O